Saturday, February 16, 2013

Duck Stuff: Morning Mud

Running back Kenjon Barner hurt? The Ducks vaunted running game bottled up? The Ducks up just seven early in the third quarter? No matter. The Bears ended up getting Marcus Mariota'd. This game, in fact, seemed to provide ultimate confirmation that Mariota was an elite quarterback and a future Heisman Trophy contender. He was simply brilliant on the road in the second half of a game where things weren't going Oregon's way.

• Sam Arney believes Marcus Mariota will be throwing the ball more in 2013 and lays out his reasoning.

• Rob Moseley takes a closer look at the recruiting class of 2011 to see if they lived up to the hype.

The 2011 class yielded seven players who saw the field as true freshmen, including De'Anthony Thomas, in-state phenom Colt Lyerla and even an offensive lineman, Jake Fisher. Those three were among the six full-time starters in 2012 from the class, joined by quarterback Marcus Mariota, offensive tackle Tyler Johnstone and cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, all but Johnstone having earned some level of all-conference distinction from Pac-12 coaches.

Behind a strong start from Jake Reed and stellar plays by leftfielder Brett Thomas and shortstop J.J. Altobelli, Coach Horton's fifth edition at UO opened the 2013 season with a 3-0 win over Hawaii in front of a standing room only crowd of 4,726 at Les Murakami Stadium.